Aren’t Lower Gas Prices The Economic Stimulus?

by Veritas Obviam

Got gas yesterday in Westwood.  (No, this isn’t a story about Rubio’s)

Paid $1.95.  Looked around the place, saw a lot of other people paying $1.95.  But nobody was smiling.  Seems like we were paying at least twice that last summer, so shouldn’t we be ‘pumped’ over this reduction? 

A couple rough numbers to consider (broad strokes, don’t get bogged down here):  The average American drives a little over 12,000 miles a year and there are about 200 million drivers.  ‘Average’ fuel economy of cars on American roads is about 20MPG so those drivers each need about 600 gallons of fuel a year.

At the beginning of last July the national average price for gas topped out at about $4.10.  Last week it was under $1.70.

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Posted Jan 12th 2009 at 11:49 am in Uncategorized | 36 Comments